Performance of animals shifted from preferred to less preferred rewards declines to a level below that of animals that have experienced only the less preferred reward. It has been demonstrated that both anygdalectomy and the sy stemic administration of anxiolytics attenuates the response to incentive loss. Furthermore, it has been proposed that the amygdala is the neural site responsible for the mediation of the anxiolytic actions of the benzodiazepines. The studies proposed herein are designed to determine the extent of involvement of the amygdala in the response to incentive loss. This will be pursued by the direct application of various doses of benzodiazepine agonists and antagonists as well as the GABA agonists and antagonists to specific amygdala subdivisions of rats performing in a negative contrast paradigm. In addition, lesions specific for amygdala monoaminergic systems and probe doses of monoamine agonists will be investigated. The neurochemical mechanisms underlying these behavioral changes may be similar to those controlling responses to incentive loss and unmet expectancies in humans.